Sherilyn Fenn Videos : Screamin' Jay Hawkins - Alligator Wine.wmv

screamin jay hawkins oldies legend american folk jazz swing boogie blues music electric guitar piano trumpet alligator wine wmv

Screamin' Jay Hawkins - Alligator Wine.wmv

Screamin' Jay Hawkins was best known for his song "I Put a Spell On You, " which he recorded on the Okeh label in 1956 and which helped win him cult status in the United States, Europe and Japan. He had originally planned the tune as a ballad, but after a night of heavy drinking he tried again--screaming, yelling and groaning--and never looked back. The snorting, some say "cannibalistic" delivery got "I Put A Spell On You" banned from radio stations across the country. Hawkins went on to use the same demented style again and again. An outrageous performer, he used bizarre stage props, often emerging out of coffins during shows. He would wield rubber snakes and fake tarantulas and wear a boar's tooth around his neck or a bone clipped to his nose. Jay Hawkins got his first break in 1951 as a pianist-valet to veteran jazz guitarist Tiny Grimes. His recording debut was 1952's "Why Did You Waste My Time, " backed by Grimes and his Rockin' Highlanders. ***Trivia*** Was planning an album of operatic recordings to sing on at the time of his death. May have fathered as many as 75 children. Enlisted in the US Army at the age of 13 with a forged birth certificate, and was sent to front line combat duty. Golden Gloves amateur boxing champion and later, while in the Army, won the Alaska Middleweight Championship in 1949 from Billy McCann, though he was stripped of the title because of a technicality under suspicious circumstances. His song "I Put A Spell On You" has been used in ...

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